Part 8 (1/2)
”But here's Mr. Fitzgerald still,” said the admiral pointedly.
”Not long ago you said to me that if ever I saw the son of David Fitzgerald to bring him home. Till yesterday I never saw him; only then because Mrs. Coldfield pointed him out and wondered what he was doing with a tray of statuettes around his neck. As I could not invite him to come home with me, I did the next best thing; I invited him to call on me. I was told that he was fond of adventures, so I gave the invitation as much color as I could. Do I stand pardoned?”
”Indeed you do!” cried Fitzgerald. So this was the Killigrew his father had known?
”David Fitzgerald, your father? That makes all the difference in the world.” The admiral thrust out a hand. ”Your father wasn't a good business man, nor was he in the navy, but he could draw charts of the Atlantic coast with his eyes shut. Laura, you get the whisky and sugar and hot water. You haven't brought me a secretary, but you have brought under my roof the son of an old friend.”
She laughed. It was rich and free-toned laughter, good for any man to hear. As she went to prepare the toddy, the music echoed again through the hall.
”Sometimes I wake up in the morning with a new gray hair,” sighed the admiral. ”What would you do with a girl like that?”
”I'd hang on to her as long as I could,” earnestly.
”I shall,” grimly. ”Your father and I were old friends. There wasn't a yacht on these waters that could show him her heels, not even my own.
You don't mean to tell me you're no yachtsman! Why, it ought to be in the blood.”
”Oh, I can handle small craft, but I don't know much about the engine-room. What time does the next train return to New York?”
”For you there'll be no train under a week. You're going to stay here, since you've been the victim of a hoax.”
”Disabuse your mind there, sir. I don't know when I've enjoyed anything so thoroughly.”
”But you'll stay? Oh, yes!” as Fitzgerald shook his head. ”The secretary can do the work here while you and I can take care of the rats in the hold. Laura's just imagining things, but we'll humor her.
If there's any trouble with the chimney, why, we'll get a bricklayer and pull it down.”
”Miss Killigrew may have some real cause for alarm. I saw a man, or rather, I heard him, running, as I came up the road from the gates. I called to him, but he did not answer.”
”Is that so? Wasn't the porter at the gates when you came in?”
”No. The footpath was free.”
”This begins to look serious. If the porter isn't there the gate bell rings, I can open it myself by wire. I never bother about it at night, unless I am expecting some one. But in the daytime I can see from here whether or not I wish to open the gate. A man running in the park, eh?
Little good it will do him. The house is a network of burglar alarms.”
”Wires can be cut and quickly repaired.”
”But this is no house to rob. All my valuables, excepting these books, are in New York. The average burglar isn't of a literary turn of mind.
Still, if Laura has really heard something, all the more reason why you should make us a visit. Wait a moment. I've an idea.” The admiral set the burglar alarm and tried it. The expression on his face was blank. ”Am I getting deafer?”
”No bell rang,” said Fitzgerald quickly.
”By cracky, if Laura is right! But not a word to her, mind. When she goes up-stairs we'll take a trip into the cellar and have a look at the main wire. You've got to stay; that's all there is about it. This is serious. I hadn't tested the wires in a week.”
”Perhaps it's only a fuse.”
”We can soon find out about that. s.h.!.+ Not a word to her!”
She entered with a tray and two steaming toddies, as graceful a being as Hebe before she spilled the precious drop. The two men could not keep their eyes off her, the one with loving possession, the other with admiration not wholly free from unrest. The daring manner in which she had lured him here would never be forgetable. And she had known him at the start? And that merry Mrs. Coldfield in the plot!